Magics progress in Slam: Three-day weekend round-up
Finn Harris scored 53 retired out as Merstham Magics beat the Lingfield Lancers to progress to the regional semi-finals of the Surrey Slam T20 midweek competition.
The teenager put on 77 for the first wicket, off nine overs, with Robin Hardman as the visitors made 124 from their innings, Ris Bakrania also bagging 20.
Lewis Still took an early wicket as Merstham made a great start with the ball, courtesy of an excellent Rory Crouch catch. Another catch, by Richard Feist, soon followed off the same bowler.
Just as Lingfield seemed to be taking charge, Hardman's direct hit from close to the boundary secured a run out at 75-6 off 13 overs. The hosts continued to push until Ashar Syed took another crucial wicket at 105. Then Alex Reeves' throw resulted in another run out by Hardman before Syed's first ball of the final over, with the hosts on 114, produced a final run out.
Merstham's first team, meanwhile, suffered another defeat in the Surrey Championship Division Five on Saturday.
The hosts let slip the chance to close the gap to Alleyn, but their visitors to Quality Street closed their own gap to the top two.
Ammar Tahir gave the Magics early success, reducing the visitors to 8-2 and, with the help of Asim Jaffri, Alleyn were 27-3. Then Will Deasy (62) put on 76 with Matt Evans (29) before the latter was run out by Lithon Tarofder. When Deasy departed courtesy of Jaffri's catch off Mohsin Ali (3-52) at 112-5, the hosts felt they had the upper hand.
It was 42 runs later that they got the next breakthrough, Will Preston running out Jon Harvey for 29. Eventually Tahir took care of Robert George (36, caught Ali) on his way to 4-30 as the visitors were all out in the 50th over.
The chase of what seemed an achievable total began badly. Merstham lost too many at the top of the order cheaply, with only Ed Dawson of the top five gaining double figures as Dan Goodwin (3-27) and James Priest (3-26) made early inroads.
Preston (20) and Ali (35) put on 43 for the sixth wicket before Ali was caught by Nick Frith off Goodwin. Preston was the ninth wicket to go, on 136, having put on 37 with Jaffri (31 not out) who, with Tahir, could only add five more before Merstham's innings ended on 141 from 40 overs.
The second team took an emphatic victory at Addiscombe, who were dismissed for 91 in 25 overs, courtesy of 6-48 from Safyan Aslam and 4-42 from Bobby Sharp.
Nav Saeed (28) was the only man out in the run chase, with Jason Drewett (28) Lack Letts (12) unbeaten in the nine-wicket victory.
The third team came up against multi century maker Imran Dawood (144) at the Ring, who was eventually caught by George Corrie off Callum Letts (4-42), as unbeaten league leaders Ewell clocked up 336-7 at The Ring.
Ben Carter also took two wickets and James Lowe the other.
Merstham were all out for 172 in the 36th over. Ashar Syed struck 64 at the top of the innings with Jason Kyte (25). Corrie (10), Zee Murtaza (10) and Carter (20) also made double figures as the hosts had to settle for three bonus points.
The fourth team faced unbeaten league leaders Cheam at Peaches Close and, put in to bat, managed 100 runs more than in the fixture when they first played it two years ago. Their total of 181-9 was set up by David Reeves' 66 at the top of the order, passing 50 before drinks, when Merstham had 100.
Matt Retter made 15 and Asif Akhtar made a stoic 36 as post-drink runs proved harder against two containing spinners. Sunny Bowry made a valuable contribution 26 not out including a lovely six into the road.
Merstham's bowlers had early success, Alvin Sathya bowling a wonderful inswinger to dismiss one opener second ball. However, Merstham were undone by the other opener who scored a century for the second week running.
This was not before Sathya had taken three wickets (one caught and bowled) and another catch off Matt Greaves (1-15) as Cheam took 31 overs to reach their total for the loss of four wickets.